See You Later
by AylaElphabaMidna
Summary: A "Twilight Princess" semi-novelization. Link reflects by the Faron spring, remembering... Still a work in progress. Please comment; any criticism is appreciated!


_Author's Note: After helping save Hyrule, Link returns only briefly to Ordon. For a while, he rides across Hyrule, searching for something he will admit to no one. Unsuccessful, he returns again to Ordon, but is aloof from his friends, even Ilia and Rusl. He wanders alone into Faron Woods, and sits by the spring, letting his mind meander back to everything that has happened..._

_Some of the things characters say, though tweaked a bit according to my memory, come directly from the game. _

* * *

**See You Later**

_by AylaElphabaMidna_

Faron Woods drifts into the late afternoon shades of amber and sepia. In a few hours it will slip into the darker shades of sleep, but for now, all is suspended. Waiting.

Only the strands of hair by his face rock in the breeze.

_Do you ever feel a strange sadness at dusk? The only time when their world intersects with ours._

He blinks as a light brown leaf touches the pool, changing the surface. Even the water is succumbing to the gentle spread of sepia. Nothing threatening; not the ominous, surreal spread of shadow. All is well.

She'd warned him. She'd confided in him--how her people had suffered, how they were banished, and how the mirror was once a link, but now a danger.

_Light and shadow cannot mix. Link… I…_

* * *

In the beginning, her presence had been a constant aggravation. From the moment she sprang into his prison cell in the castle's sewer level, where Link awoke after the first wolf transformation, she had badgered him, taunted, rebuked and demanded.

"Hurry up! Go! If you want to save your friends, you have to do EXACTLY as I say."

His protests would come only as growls or barks, and she would laugh. "Now, now! No need to bite!"

There was something she wanted him to do for her, something she explained only in bits and pieces--rewards for each part of the quest that he completed. And there were other rewards—he knew now, at least, that Ilia and Colin were safe. Colin, along with several other children abducted from Ordon town, now stayed in an arid, nearly-abandoned village called Kakariko. A dozen or so ramshackle houses stretched along a single dirt road. Further along, the road separated, one part leading into Hyrule Field, while the other became the steep climb up to Death Mountain.

Knowing the children stayed in such a place—Death Mountain was a live volcano—at first gave Link pause. He'd said little to Renado, the shaman who now cared for the children. It was not that he felt any animosity toward Renado. He just didn't speak much to anyone. Link had been that way since childhood. Some called him shy, but that didn't quite explain it. He did not dislike others' company. But he was more of a thinker, one who soaked in a situation or a landscape, but sparsely commented aloud.

His face must have given him away.

"Do not worry for the children," Renado had put a firm hand on Link's shoulder. "No harm will come to them here. I swear it."

Only later, when he returned to Ordon to assure the parents that their children were safe, did Link learn that Renado was an old friend of Ilia's father, Mayor Bo.

"Do you think...will they..." Link did not want to seem unduly doubtful of Renado's skills. The mayor trusted the man, had once been good friends with him.

"Will the children be safe, you mean?" Bo raised an eyebrow. "They're with Renado, I can't think of a safer place."

"It's not that. It's...the volcano..."

"Ah," Bo nodded. "Yes, I see what you're saying. I mean, you hear about those Gorons living so close to the top and you wonder how they stand it! I know they're rock-hard and all—" And Bo meant it literally. The Gorons were a tribe of stout, stiff creatures whose skin was tough as the mountain itself. They could curl themselves into a rolling boulder, knocking clean off his feet anyone foolish enough to get in the way. "But Renado knows the place. He's lived in Kakariko longer than I've been alive, and he's witnessed very few eruptions (and none serious, you understand). He knows how to be careful."

Link nodded.

Then the burly mayor gave Link an intense look. "Say, Link, was Ilia with the kids, too? You didn't say anything about her yet."

Link glanced away uncomfortably. "I haven't...I didn't see her in Kakariko, but...I'm sure she's..."

Bo wasn't angry. He showed no sign of blaming Link. But his down-turned face did nothing to ease the young man's conscience.

"I must admit, that's not at all what I wanted to hear," Bo sighed finally.

* * *

When Link finally did find Ilia, he was in wolf form again, having entered the last region of Hyrule still covered in twilight. She was in the care of a kind bar owner named Telma, in Castle Town—just outside the castle in whose sewers Link had been imprisoned.

Like everyone else living in a region covered by twilight, Ilia could neither see nor hear Link. She didn't even know that the land was in twilight. None but the wolf and the imp could see that the air was now a pale ocher, or that small patches of shadow constantly floated up toward the sky, like slow bubbles in a glass. All everyone knew was an unexplainable strangeness in the air, an unease.

They could see the monsters in Hyrule Field, though. Skinny, green goblin-like creatures shot flaming arrows, sometimes riding on wild boars, at anyone who tried to reach Ordon or Eldin. Enormous, dark bird-like things patrolled the skies, emitting a call like a warped, unearthly trumpet. And dark beasts lumbered on all fours, circling particular areas of the field. Their heads were shaped like large, flat shields, and were decorated with strange magenta swirls—designs just like on the barriers between the light world and the twilight.

"Shadow beasts," Midna called them. "Zant created them in the Twilight Realm."

As long as she stayed within the walls of Castle Town, Ilia was safe.

* * *

Miraculously, within only a few weeks, he and Midna got through the first three trials in the quest she forced upon him. They restored Faron, Eldin and Lanayru provinces from the spreading shroud of twilight, restored three light beings to their homes in the Faron, Eldin, and Lanayru springs, and then combed the Forest temple, the Gorons' volcanic mines, and Lakebed temple for three objects which Midna claimed were necessary to defeat Zant. It was he whom she claimed was responsible for all the attacks on Hyrule, and for the spreading twilight.

Even now, Link did not fully understand what those three necessary objects, which Midna called fused shadows, did. The snake-shaped spirit called Lanayru, who took its name from the Lanayru spring in which it resided, warned him that the shadows were meant to assemble a weapon that none who lived in the realms of light should use. It was a weapon made by cursed beings near the beginning of time. The Lanayru spirit called them interlopers who tried to conquer the Sacred Realm, the realm of the three divine beings that created Hyrule. The interlopers used a kind of strange magic and created a weapon that turned unrighteous users into monsters.

In order to protect the Sacred Realm, the three divine beings finally confiscated and hid the weapon. But even the Lanayru spirit admitted that this weapon was now a necessary evil—as Midna had claimed, it was the only power that could be pitted against Zant.

Eventually she began to ease off her harshness. As they stood in the final chamber of the Lakebed temple, where Link had battled an enormous, eel-like monster in order to acquire the final fused shadow, Midna stopped for a moment.

"Look, I'm sorry I dragged you everywhere with me. I've got what I need now."

He only nodded, relieved. Relieved that he would soon be free of this obnoxious imp who'd forced him to do her bidding. Free to do what he really needed to--to bring Ilia, Colin, and the children home.

And then everything fell apart.

* * *

All Link remembered was the strange armored man forcing him back into wolf form on the banks of the Lanayru spring, where Midna had just seconds ago transported him after leaving the Lakebed temple. The spirit Lanayru rose with a furious cry from the water, but with a wave of his arm, Zant sent the spirit crashing back against the cavern walls.

Link lay, struggling for breath, watching Zant levitate Midna over the spring. Her arms were positioned at either side of her head, as though she was chained against an invisible wall. Suddenly she pounded into the ground, a small cloud of dirt leaping up and muffling her cry of pain. Something surged in Link's limbs and he leaped at Zant's throat. But he was stopped in mid-air and crashed back down. The last thing he remembered was Midna's breath by his head. She was begging him to wake up.

* * *

Somehow, he awoke in Hyrule field under the silence of night. Midna's body lay cold and weak on his back. She seemed barely able to stay on, and when Link glanced over his shoulder, he felt a chill of horror. Her entire skin was a pale, frozen shade of blue, and her normally flaming hair was a darker shade of ice. Her breath came in short gasps.

Just then, Lanayru's voice echoed in his head—

_Hero, chosen by the gods. Go to the princess who lives in the castle of Hyrule._

Zelda. Yes, she could help. It was she to whom Midna had brought him, after she helped him escape from the castle sewers. It was she who explained how Hyrule came to be covered by twilight in the first place. It was she who remained in the castle's highest tower, watching over her troubled kingdom.

* * *

"Link, STOP HER!!" Hovering against her will above the cold stone floor, Midna tried to reach out to Zelda, but her limbs were still numb. And Link, still in the cursed wolf form, could only watch the healing process with a growing dread. Large beads of light streamed from Zelda's outstretched hand and into Midna's body, and as the final beads streamed from her, Zelda simply faded out of existence. She simply vanished, and Midna floated back to the floor, now able to stand on her own. She stared, dumbfounded, at her hands. Her body now held Zelda's life force. And the princess...?

_What kind of magic is this?_

He'd asked himself that question from the moment he first passed through that bizarre dark wall that glowed orange at the edges and was decorated with unfathomable swirling symbols...when his body seized up and began to sprout thick grey fur...when Midna could make him disintegrate into dark particles of twilight and reassemble in another part of Hyrule. These were things he'd only heard in stories told by the elders in Ordon. Mysterious, frightening powers held by creatures that did not belong to Hyrule. Interlopers.

"Let's go." Midna hopped onto Link's back and patted his shoulder. "Back to Faron Woods." That was where Zelda promised they'd find the cure to Link's curse. The tower room vanished at the flick of Midna's hands, and now they were in Hyrule Field, just outside Castle Town.

"We'll come back to her," Midna said softly. "I'm sure she's still...somewhere. I'll give back the gift, once we've found the sword, and..."

All of a sudden, there came a flash of amber light from behind. Midna and Link whirled around. _What the...?_

It was an enormous twilight prism, like two nearly-transparent pyramids connected at the bases—one pointing to the sky, the other burrowing into the earth. It came out of thin air, encasing Hyrule Castle. Its greenish-amber faces were different from those great dark walls Link had seen before. Those had rippled like a thick liquid whenever Link passed through, but these walls looked completely impenetrable, even with Midn's help.

There was a sharp intake of breath. Midna's fist clenched to the point of nearly breaking a bone. Her face grew tight as she clenched her teeth. But just as quickly she let go, turning sadly away to face Hyrule field.

"This doesn't change anything. We'll come back to her. If he thinks he can keep us out..." With a gentle kick, she signaled Link to get a move on. They had a few things to take care of yet.


End file.
